Graduate School of Education

Special education and diversity—these are two of the hallmarks of Touro’s Graduate School of Education (GSE).

With enrollment nearing 2,500, GSE is one of the largest graduate schools of education in New York State and is turning out an abundance of highly qualified teachers and school leaders. Touro’s programs in early childhood education, childhood education and Jewish childhood education are structured to enable students to gain certification in both education and special education by earning a single degree.

GSE offers a rich array of programs in a wide range of educational specialties and fields, including M.S. programs in education/special education, mathematics education, school leadership, teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), teaching students with disabilities grades 7-12 generalist, teaching literacy and school counseling. We also offer a master’s in instructional technology in conjunction with the Graduate School of Technology and six advanced certificates in the following areas: gifted and talented education; teaching students with autism and multiple disabilities; bilingual general education; bilingual special education and speechlanguage disabilities; bilingual pupil personnel services; and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

Touro GSE offers educational options to meet every student’s needs, including in-person and online. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Touro GSE in the Top 100 for Best Online Programs in Graduate Education nationally. GSE faculty remain committed to ensuring the effectiveness of the school’s graduates and continually scan the needs of New York’s schools and the profession by way of their participation in clinical practice and membership in state and national organizations within their respective fields.

TRAILBLAZER IN DIVERSITY

GSE is a front-runner in awarding master’s degrees to minority students. Year after year, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education ranks Touro among the top 100 universities nationally for awarding the most master’s degrees to African American, Hispanic, Native American and Asian American student populations. In 2020, GSE ranked 35 among the top universities for awarding master’s degrees to educators of color. Learning within a diverse cohort prepares and motivates our students to teach in today’s ethnically and culturally diverse classrooms. In addition, Touro is one of 75 institutions nationwide, and one of five in New York participating in the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Holmes Scholars program for the preparation of future educators from underrepresented communities.

“These rankings reflect Touro’s commitment to educating a diverse group of highly qualified teachers who will effectively meet the needs of our elementary and secondary school classrooms and curriculum,” observed Touro President Dr. Alan Kadish. “Our mission has always been to foster professional development and academic leadership for all individuals so they can prepare for the unique challenges they will face in their careers as educators.”

RESEARCH IMPACTING ACHIEVEMENT AND EQUALITY

Through its Lander Center for Educational Research, GSE coordinates efforts to initiate, promote and support research, policy and practice for effective leadership, skilled

teaching and equitable opportunities for learning. To this end, the Lander Center works with school districts as well as Touro faculty. Its annual Talks on Teaching series has drawn participants from around the globe and have addressed topics such as Using Cultural Tools to Develop Teachers Reflective Practice and Transforming Curriculum, Exploring Identity and Cultivating Culturally Responsive Educators.

The scholarship and community outreach of our faculty are informed by our motto of Leading and Learning from Praxis: Serving with Compassion. Touro GSE was chosen as one of 43 recipients across the country to receive a $4 million grant for a five-year initiative to develop and implement the Young Academic Music and Computational Thinking (YAM) project, which has become a national model. The grant is supported by the U.S. Department of Education and the goal is to improve and innovate the teaching of mathematics, music and computational thinking in kindergarten. This project addresses the disparity in educational opportunities for underrepresented student populations in both urban and rural communities. Project partners are collaboratively designing an integrated music, mathematics and computational thinking curriculum that teachers can implement in inclusive classrooms of cognitively, linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Elisa Alvarez, M.S.

Associate Commissioner, NYS Office for Bilingual Education

Elisa Alvarez, now 53, recalls holding her mother’s hand as they walked home from elementary school in Washington Heights, a large Latinx community in New York City. What should have been a sweet sharing was sometimes destroyed by adults who hissed, “Speak English, you are in America now!”

“That berating of my mom simply for speaking Spanish fueled my passion for advocacy,” says Alvarez, who among other roles, taught as a bilingual special education teacher in NYC schools, was a middle school principal in the South Bronx area, a community superintendent and since January 2020, the associate commissioner for the Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages for the State of New York.

In 2000, with scholarship help from the school, she entered Touro College Graduate School of Education. “From the moment I walked through the doors, I began to get the framework for everything I’ve done and continue to do since,” says Alvarez, married with two grown sons. “From how you communicate with people to how you support your stakeholders to how you work as a community, a cohort, a team and never as an island, the lesson reinforced from Touro was that a successful leader serves others and builds a network of critical friends for advocacy.”

As a graduate student in the school leadership program at Touro, “We were expected to work hard but we were supported throughout. The academics were rigorous, the structure was in place and the professors were already established in their fields. They understood the real world of education and taught us the nuances and techniques for succeeding in the field. Things like building relationships, mentoring, support systems were areas the studies focused upon.”

The list of what she does today for the largest school system in America is seemingly endless, but primarily Alvarez protects the Civil Right Mandate of English Language Learners and ensures that they receive a high-quality education. She does this by designing and executing policy and systemic initiatives that significantly improve outcomes for students learning English as a new language. Alvarez, who earned her M.S. from Touro in 2004, is currently pursuing her doctorate in educational leadership to continue her advocacy.

“Everything I use today,” she says, “comes from what I learned at Touro.”

Alvarez isn’t hung up on titles, even her own impressive one. Instead she focuses on helping students and families to get what they should have—a high-quality education: “My title allows me to be heard, to lead as a change agent for children and families—in everything from government policy to classroom teaching.”